MMO Updates

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• Rise and Shiny: Spirit Tales
• Previously on MVTV: The week of March 3rd, 2012
• The Daily Grind: How much grouping should be required in a game?
• gPotato closing Prius Online, compensating players through April 10th
• The Mog Log: Staying off the grid in Gridania
• GDC 2012: The Tattered Notebook attends Brasse's community panel
• The Road to Mordor: An Update 6 play date with Turbine

Rise and Shiny: Spirit Tales Posted: 11 Mar 2012 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Video, New titles, Previews, Opinion, Free-to-play, Hands-on, Casual, Humor, Rise and Shiny, Livestream It's funny, being asked to take a look at a game like Spirit Tales, one in a preview-only state. As usual, I am excited any time a new game pops up in need of being checked out, but when I am alone on the server and surrounded only by soulless NPCs, I feel a bit like a kid lost in an amusement park. Sure, it's a blast to ride all of the rides, but after the fifth go-around on the ferris wheel, I would be missing some humanity. I soldiered on, however, and luckily I had some of the most adorable graphics ever keeping me company. Not only that, but my gracious hosts stuffed my tiny widdle pockets with cash-shop money. I blew the bulk of it on costumes for my little avatar and had quite a bit of fun playing dress-up. At first, I thought the game was going to be nothing but a game of dress-up. Luckily for me, my livestream audience seemed to know more than I did. Continue reading Rise and Shiny: Spirit Tales Rise and Shiny: Spirit Tales originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 11 Mar 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Previously on MVTV: The week of March 3rd, 2012 Posted: 11 Mar 2012 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Video, Events, real-world, Previews, PvP, PvE, Free-to-play, Browser, Hands-on, Casual, MMOFPS, Humor, Livestream, Miscellaneous, Previously on MV TV Another week, another wrap-up of fantastic livestreaming, huh folks? In case you missed any of it, be sure to bookmark our MV Guide page. Check back on it often, maybe 12 times a day, and then you'll never miss another stream! Before you do that, though, sit back and check out some of the best moments of our week of gaming. We'll start you off with Mike flying through some EVE space, followed by a visit to RIFT. Next up, Richie was perplexed by some Wakfu. I jumped into my usual weekly favorite Glitch to play some Game of Crowns while listening to metal, and then find out that watching Simball in Second Life is pretty darn awesome. Jeremy decided to follow that up with a visit to the turn-based world of Atlantica Online and then got all brave and found himself splattered in Darkfall. To round off the week, I ran some missions in Spiral Knights, and Blake brought up the rear by running and gunning in Global Agenda. Continue reading Previously on MVTV: The week of March 3rd, 2012 Previously on MVTV: The week of March 3rd, 2012 originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 11 Mar 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Daily Grind: How much grouping should be required in a game? Posted: 11 Mar 2012 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Culture, Game mechanics, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous A good group arguably makes any game more fun. No matter how much fun you're having in any game, be it Star Wars: The Old Republic or Global Agenda or whatever else, there are players who believe it's better when you're running with other people, telling jokes or roleplaying or even just working in unison. Of course, others would point out that's all if you have a good group. A bad group can turn even something fun into a real misery, which sort of defeats the purpose of playing a game. And that's not getting into the time it takes to form a group or coordinate several people... or the fact that some players just prefer not to group. So how much grouping should an MMO require out of its players? Should pretty much all content require a group, forcing players to work together and build a real sense of community at the expense of any solitary play? Or should pretty much all content not require a group, letting everyone group with players as they wish without hard restrictions -- and making large chunks of the game single-player for all intents and purposes? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind! The Daily Grind: How much grouping should be required in a game? originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 11 Mar 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

gPotato closing Prius Online, compensating players through April 10th Posted: 10 Mar 2012 04:00 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Business models, MMO industry, News items, Free-to-play We regret to inform you of the impending death of Prius Online, a free-to-play fantasy title that featured a unique pet system comprised of anima and giga companions. We first got wind of the title at last year's Game Developer Conference, and we covered its launch in the summer of 2011. In the interim, gPotato has decided to terminate the project and has posted a terse announcement on the game's official website with all the details. March 27th will be the final day of service, and all cash shop items have been reduced to 1% of their original price for the last two weeks. gPotato is also compensating players via credit in its other games; you'll want to head to the compensation page to take full advantage of that offer by April 10th. [Thanks to Dweeblok for the tip!] gPotato closing Prius Online, compensating players through April 10th originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 10 Mar 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Announcement

The Mog Log: Staying off the grid in Gridania Posted: 10 Mar 2012 03:00 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Lore, Opinion, Consoles, Final Fantasy XIV, The Mog Log At first glance on a trip through Final Fantasy XIV's cities, Gridania probably seems like the nicest city in Eorzea. Ul'dah always has the smile of a used car salesman, Limsa Lominsa stinks of fish and is full of pirates, Ishgard isn't welcoming even without the dragons, and Ala Mhigo sort of has a bad case of Garlean occupation. But Gridania is built in the middle of rather nice forest territory, and it doesn't seem to suffer from any of the power struggles or unfriendly residents that your other options have. Sure, the forest can be a bit tempermental, but it's a peaceful spot. But as you may have guessed, it only looks that way until you actually spend some time there. Then you realize that the city is not nearly so welcoming as you initially thought -- it's a hotbed of activity, stuffed to the brim with spirits that do not necessarily have the best interests of adventurers or anyone else at heart. Gridania doesn't suffer the internal conflicts of the other cities, but that's mostly because the place is already being crushed too thoroughly by all of the external threats it has to face just to keep treading water. Continue reading The Mog Log: Staying off the grid in Gridania The Mog Log: Staying off the grid in Gridania originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 10 Mar 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

GDC 2012: The Tattered Notebook attends Brasse's community panel Posted: 10 Mar 2012 01:00 PM PST Filed under: EverQuest II, Culture, MMO industry, Opinion, Free-to-play, Massively Event Coverage, The Tattered Notebook, Miscellaneous What do dwarves and Monty Python have in common? They both feature prominently in Linda "The Brasse" Carlson's GDC 2012 talk about the front lines of the SOE community relations team. Given the recent roller coaster ride of the ProSiebenSat.1 deal and the turmoil on the forums that followed, I found it interesting to hear what it's like to be a member of the community management folks as they try to handle being in the middle of it all. While her talk was mainly aimed at community managers in other games, there were a few tidbits that players would probably find interesting and maybe even surprising. Read on for the highlights! Continue reading GDC 2012: The Tattered Notebook attends Brasse's community panel GDC 2012: The Tattered Notebook attends Brasse's community panel originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 10 Mar 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Road to Mordor: An Update 6 play date with Turbine Posted: 10 Mar 2012 11:00 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Patches, PvP, Free-to-play, The Road to Mordor This past week, Turbine called my parents and asked if I could come over to play Lord of the Rings Online. "Sure he can," my mother replied. "As long as he wears his galoshes. What? It's wet outside!" And thus I ended up hanging out with the Turbine crew -- Aaron Campbell, Jared Pruett, and Jeff Libby -- as they walked me through Update 6 with the optional developer commentary mode set to "on." I highly recommend you rent a developer for the same experience, as it helps to have someone giving you a Cliff's Notes version of the game's complicated lore. Pruett first caught me up on the major PvMP changes of this coming Monday's update. The team wanted to increase rewards and turn progression into a seasonal mechanic to keep players coming to the Ettenmoors. As such, PvMP now has a universal currency -- that's account-wide, by the way -- that will allow players to purchase top-end gear. The team also tweaked down what the devs saw as a DPS race in order to give players time to deliberate and make strategic choices during fights. Beyond PvMP, the devs marched me right into the next epic storyline book that whisked us away to a strange new land: The Great River. What did I find waiting for me there? Continue reading The Road to Mordor: An Update 6 play date with Turbine The Road to Mordor: An Update 6 play date with Turbine originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 10 Mar 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

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